Battle of the Safeties
Today we’re debating road disc, tire widths, and blinding each other at night on the path with bright lights – safety just came up too with the RedBull Rampage. Back then, in the olden times, it was the Battle of the Safeties:
Cartoon depicts the looming battle between Safety Bicycles and Safety Ordinaries like the Kangaroo. Artist G. Moore makes it clear who the winner will be.
The Kangaroo was a short penny farthing that put the cyclist’s head at much less risk of an endo and as we know, the safety bicycle won, and has been relatively unchanged ever since.
In the first issue of our magazine, Mark V wrote a Brief History of Major Road Bike Innovations and it’s available on iTunes and the Web.
At the beginning of the 20th century, road bikes had already assumed the basic shape that we recognize today, the “safety bicycle.” The rider sits behind the steering axis, pedals/cranks driving the rear wheel through a drivetrain, usually employing gearwheels and a chain.
Source: G. Moore | Canada Science and Technology Museum via Google Cultural Institute.